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99 new shopping centres were opened in 2013 in East Africa, 71 in North Africa and the rest in south, central and west Africa..

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The economy of Africa consists of the trade, industry, agriculture, and human resources of the continent. As of 2012[update], approximately 1.07 billion people were living in 54 different countries in Africa. Africa is a resource-rich continent but many African people are poor. Recent growth has been due to growth in sales in commodities, services, and manufacturing. Sub Saharan Africa, in particular, is expected to reach a GDP of $29 trillion by 2050 but its income inequality will be a major deterrent in wealth distribution.

In March 2013, Africa was identified as the world's poorest inhabited continent; however, the World Bank expects that most African countries will reach "middle income" status (defined as at least US$1,000 per person a year) by 2025 if current growth rates continue. In 2013, Africa was the world’s fastest-growing continent at 5.6% a year, and GDP is expected to rise by an average of over 6% a year between 2013 and 2023.Growth has been present throughout the continent, with over one-third of Sub-Saharan African countries posting 6% or higher growth rates, and another 40% growing between 4% to 6% per year.

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Africa's economy was diverse, driven by extensive trade routes that developed between cities and kingdoms. Some trade routes were overland, some involved navigating rivers, still others developed around port cities. Large African empires became wealthy due to their trade networks, for example Ghana, Sudan, Asanti, and the Yoruba people.

Some parts of Africa had close trade relationships with Arab kingdoms, and by the time of the Ottoman Empire, Africans had begun converting to Islam in large numbers. This development, along with the economic potential in finding a trade route to the Indian Ocean, brought the Portuguese to sub-Saharan Africa as an imperial force in the 15th century. Christian missionary activities were supplemented by economic imperialism.

After the Scramble for Africa in the 1880s and the partitioning of the continent among European powers, the continent's former trade routes were replaced with new ones and its economies were radically changed. Colonial interests created new industries to feed European appetites for goods such as palm oil, rubber, cotton, precious metals, spices and other goods.

Following the independence of African countries during the 20th century, economic, political and social upheaval consumed much of the continent. An economic rebound among some countries has been evident in recent years, however.

The dawn of the African economic boom (which is in place since 2000s) was the Chinese economic boom that had emerged in Asia since late 1970s. Currently, South Africa and Nigeria ranks among the continent's largest economies, with Egypt economically scrambling and suffering from the recent political turmoil. Equatorial Guinea possessed Africa's highest GDP per capita albeit allegations of human rights violations. Oil-rich countries such as Algeria, Libya and Gabon, and mineral-rich Botswana emerged among the top economies since the 21st century, while Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, potentially among the world's richest nations, have sunk into the list of the world's poorest nations due to pervasive political corruption, warfare and braindrain of workforce. Botswana remains the site of Africa's longest and one of the world's longest periods of economic boom (1966-1999).

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Ancient Egyptian units of measurement also served as units of currency.



The Sultanate of Mogadishu's medieval currency.

Current conditions

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In the past ten years, growth in Africa has surpassed that of East Asia Data suggest parts of the continent are now experiencing fast growth, thanks to their resources and increasing political stability and 'has steadily increased levels of peacefulness since 2007'. The World Bank reports the economy of Sub-Saharan African countries grew at rates that match or surpass global rates.

The economies of the fastest growing African nations experienced growth significantly above the global average rates. The top nations in 2007 include Mauritania with growth at 19.8%, Angola at 17.6%, Sudan at 9.6%, Mozambique at 7.9% and Malawi at 7.8%. Other fast growers include Rwanda, Mozambique, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia. Nonetheless, growth has been dismal, negative or sluggish in many parts of Africa including Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo and Burundi. Many international agencies are gaining increasing interest in investing emerging African economies. especially as Africa continues to maintain high economic growth despite current global economic recession. The rate of return on investment in Africa is currently the highest in the developing world.


Debt relief is being addressed by some international institutions in the interests of supporting economic development in Africa. In 1996, the UN sponsored the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, subsequently taken up by the IMF, World Bank and the African Development Fund (AfDF) in the form of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). As of 2013, the initiative has given partial debt relief to 30 African countries.

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Trade has driven much of the growth in Africa's economy in the early 21st century. China and India are increasingly important trade partners; 12.5% of Africa's exports are to China, and 4% are to India, which accounts for 5% of China's imports and 8% of India's. The Group of Five (Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates) are another increasingly important market for Africa's exports.

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A mobile phone advertisement on the side of a van, Kampala, Uganda.


Future

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Africa's economy—with expanding trade, English language skills (official in many Sub-Saharan countries), improving literacy and education, availability of splendid resources and cheaper labour force—is expected to continue to perform better into the future. Trade between Africa and China stood at US$166 billion in 2011.

Africa will experience a "demographic dividend" by 2035, when its young and growing labour force will have fewer children and retired people as dependents as a proportion of the population, making it more demographically comparable to the US and Europe. It is becoming a more educated labour force, with nearly half expected to have some secondary-level education by 2020. A consumer class is also emerging in Africa and is expected to keep booming. Africa has around 90 million people with household incomes exceeding $5,000, meaning that they can direct more than half of their income towards discretionary spending rather than necessities. This number could reach a projected 128 million by 2020.

During the President of the United States Barack Obama's visit to Africa in July 2013, he announced a US$7 billion plan to further develop infrastructure and work more intensively with African heads of state. A new program named Trade Africa, designed to boost trade within the continent as well as between Africa and the U.S., was also unveiled by Obama.

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According to researchers at the Overseas Development Institute, the lack of infrastructure in many developing countries represents one of the most significant limitations to economic growth and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Infrastructure investments and maintenance can be very expensive, especially in such areas as landlocked, rural and sparsely populated countries in Africa.

It has been argued that infrastructure investments contributed to more than half of Africa's improved growth performance between 1990 and 2005 and increased investment is necessary to maintain growth and tackle poverty.The returns to investment in infrastructure are very significant, with on average 30–40% returns for telecommunications (ICT) investments, over 40% for electricity generation and 80% for roads.


In Africa, it is argued that to meet the MDGs by 2015, infrastructure investments would need to reach about 15% of GDP (around $93 billion a year). Currently, the source of financing varies significantly across sectors.[19] Some sectors are dominated by state spending, others by overseas development aid (ODA) and yet others by private investors. In sub-Saharan Africa, the state spends around $9.4 billion out of a total of $24.9 billion.

In irrigation, SSA states represent almost all spending; in transport and energy a majority of investment is state spending; in Information and communication technologies and water supply and sanitation, the private sector represents the majority of capital expenditure. Overall, aid, the private sector and non-OECD financiers between them exceed state spending. The private sector spending alone equals state capital expenditure, though the majority is focused on ICT infrastructure investments.[19] External financing increased from $7 billion (2002) to $27 billion (2009). China, in particular, has emerged as an important investor.

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The Trans-African Highway network.


Economic variants and indicators

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After an initial rebound from the 2009 world economic crisis, Africa’s economy was undermined in the year 2011 by the Arab uprisings. The continent’s growth fell back from 5% in 2010 to 3.4% in 2011. With the recovery of North African economies and sustained improvement in other regions, growth across the continent is expected to accelerate to 4.5% in 2012 and 4.8% in 2013. Short-term problems for the world economy remain as Europe confronts its debt crisis. Commodity prices—crucial for Africa—have declined from their peak due to weaker demand and increased supply, and some could fall further. But prices are expected to remain at levels favourable for African exporter.

Regions
Economic activity has rebounded across Africa. However, the pace of recovery was uneven among groups of countries and subregions. Oil-exporting countries generally expanded more strongly than oil-importing countries. West Africa and East Africa were the two best-performing subregions in 2010.

Intra-African trade has been slowed by protectionist policies among countries and regions. Despite this, trade between countries belonging to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a particularly strong economic region, grew six-fold over the past decade up to 2012. Ghana and Kenya, for example, have developed markets within the region for construction materials, machinery, and finished products, quite different from the mining and agriculture products that make up the bulk of their international exports.

The African Ministers of Trade agreed in 2010 to create a Pan-Africa Free Trade Zone. This would reduce countries' tariffs on imports and increase intra-African trade, and it is hoped, the diversification of the economy overall.

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Because Africa’s export portfolio remains predominantly based on raw material, its export earnings are contingent on commodity price fluctuations. This exacerbates the continent’s susceptibility to external shocks and bolsters the need for export diversification. Trade in services, mainly travel and tourism, continued to rise in year 2012, underscoring the continent’s strong potential in this sphere.

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The situation whereby African nations export crops to the West while millions on the continent starve has been blamed on developed countries including Japan, the European Union and the United States. These countries protect their own agricultural sectors with high import tariffs and offer subsidies to their farmers, which many contend leads the overproduction of such commodities as grain, cotton and milk. The result of this is that the global price of such products is continually reduced until Africans are unable to compete, except for cash crops that do not grow easily in a northern climate.

In recent years countries such as Brazil, which has experienced progress in agricultural production, have agreed to share technology with Africa to increase agricultural production in the continent to make it a more viable trade partner.Increased investment in African agricultural technology in general has the potential to reduce poverty in Africa. The demand market for African cocoa has experienced a price boom in 2008. The Nigerian, South African and Ugandan governments have targeted policies to take advantage of the increased demand for certain agricultural products and plan to stimulate agricultural sectors. The African Union has plans to heavily invest in African agriculture and the situation is closely monitored by the UN.

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Both the African Union and the United Nations have outlined plans in modern years on how Africa can help itself industrialize and develop significant manufacturing sectors to levels proportional to the African economy in the 1960s with 21st-century technology. This focus on growth and diversification of manufacturing and industrial production, as well as diversification of agricultural production, has fueled hopes that the 21st century will prove to be a century of economic and technological growth for Africa. This hope coupled with the rise of new leaders in Africa in the future inspired the term "the African Century" referring to the 21st century potentially being the century when Africa's vast untapped labor, capital and resource potentials might become a world player.

This hope in manufacturing and industry is helped by the boom in communications technology and local mining industry in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Namibia has attracted industrial investments in recent years and South Africa has begun offering tax incentives to attract foreign direct investment projects in manufacturing.


Countries such as Mauritius have plans for developing new "green technology" for manufacturing. Developments such as this have huge potential to open new markets for African countries as the demand for alternative "green" and clean technology is predicted to soar in the future as global oil reserves dry up and fossil fuel-based technology becomes less economically viable.


Nigeria in recent years has been embracing industrialization, It currently has an indigenous vehicle manufacturing company, Innoson Motors (IVM) which manufactures Rapid Transit Buses, Trucks and SUVs with an upcoming introduction of Cars. Their various brands of vehicle are currently available in Nigeria, Ghana and other West African Nations. Nigeria also has few Electronic manufacturers like Zinox, the first Branded Nigerian Computer and Electronic gadgets (like tablet PCs) manufacturers. In 2013, Nigeria introduced a policy regarding import duty on vehicles to encourage local manufacturing companies in the country. In this regard, some foreign vehicle manufacturing companies like Nissan have made known their plans to have manufacturing plants in Nigeria. Apart from Electronics and vehicles, most consumer, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, building materials, textiles, home tools, plastics and so on are also manufactured in the country and exported to other west African and African countries. Nigeria is currently the largest manufacturer of cement in Sub-saharan Africa. and Dangote Cement Factory, Obajana is the largest cement factory in sub-saharan Africa. Ogun is considered to be the current Nigeria's industrial hub (as most factories are located in Ogun and even more companies are moving there), followed by Lagos.

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Africa's US$107 billion financial services industry will log impressive growth for the rest of the decade[which?] as more banks target the continent's emerging middle class. The banking sector has been experiencing record growth, amongst others due to various technological innovations.

China and India have showed increasing interest in emerging African economies in the 21st century. Reciprocal investment between Africa and China increased dramatically in recent years amidst the current world financial crisis.

The increased investment in Africa by China has attracted the attention of the European Union and has provoked talks of competitive investment by the EU. Members of the African diaspora abroad, especially in the EU and the United States, have increased efforts to use their businesses to invest in Africa and encourage African investment abroad in the European economy. Remittances from the African diaspora and rising interest in investment from the West will be especially helpful for Africa's least developed and most devastated economies, such as Burundi, Togo and Comoros. Angola has announced interests in investing in the EU, Portugal in particular. South Africa has attracted increasing attention from the United States as a new frontier of investment in manufacture, financial markets and small business, as has Liberia in recent years under their new leadership.

There are two African currency unions: the West African Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) and the Central African Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC). Both use the CFA franc as their legal tender.

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During the 1960s, Ghanaian politician Kwame Nkrumah promoted economic and political union of African countries, with the goal of independence. Since then, objectives, and organizations, have multiplied. Recent decades have brought efforts at various degrees of regional economic integration. Trade between African states accounts for only 11% of Africa's total commerce as of 2012, around 5 times less than in Asia.

There are currently eight regional organizations that assist with economic development in Africa:

Name of organization

Economic Community of West African States

East African Community

Economic Community of Central African States

Southern African Development Community

Intergovernmental Authority on Development

Community of Sahel-Saharan States

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

Arab Maghreb Union

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Originally posted by Ponsford:
I would appreciate if African countries invest this growth in their economy in Science and Tecnology,of course the same for my country.

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Science and technology in Africa has unfolded since the dawn of human history. The first evidence of tool use and tool making by our hominid ancestors is interred in valleys across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Currently, forty percent of African-born scientists live in OECD countries, predominantly NATO and EU countries. This has been described as an African brain drain.

Sub-Saharan African countries spent on average 0.3% of their GDP on S&T (Science and Technology) in 2007. This represents a combined increase from US$1.8bn in 2002 to US$2.8bn in 2007. North African countries spend a comparative 0.4% of GDP on research, an increase from US$2.6bn in 2002 to US$3.3bn in 2007. Exempting South Africa, the continent has augmented its collective science funding by about 50% in the last decade. Notably outstripping its neighbor states, South Africa spends 0.87% of GDP on science and technology research. Although technology parks have a long history in the US and Europe, their presence across Africa is still limited, as the continent currently lags behind other regions of the world in terms of funding technological development and innovation. Only six countries (Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, Madagascar, Tunisia and South Africa) have made technology park construction an integral piece of their development goals.

In recent years, a greater volume of African countries have embraced technology as a driver of development, e.g. Kenya's Vision 2030 and Rwanda's rapid ICT growth. Telecom innovation in particular has broadly improved quality of life across sub-Saharan Africa.[citation needed] Also, continent-wide membership in social networking sites such as Facebook has risen to over 100,000 by 2012.[citation needed]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa



Economy of Ghana Vision 2020 logo: Ghana to become a developed country from the years 2020–2029 then Ghana immediately become a newly industrialised country from the years 2030–2039 onwards.

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Both the African Union and the United Nations have outlined plans in modern years on how Africa can help itself industrialize and develop significant manufacturing sectors to levels proportional to the African economy in the 1960s with 21st-century technology. This focus on growth and diversification of manufacturing and industrial production, as well as diversification of agricultural production, has fueled hopes that the 21st century will prove to be a century of economic and technological growth for Africa. This hope coupled with the rise of new leaders in Africa in the future inspired the term "the African Century" referring to the 21st century potentially being the century when Africa's vast untapped labor, capital and resource potentials might become a world player.

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Sumerian astronomers studied angle measure, using a division of circles into 360 degrees. They, and later the Babylonians, studied the ratios of the sides of similar triangles and discovered some properties of these ratios but did not turn that into a systematic method for finding sides and angles of triangles. The ancient Nubians used a similar method.

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The third Nubian Pyramid site Meroë is considered to be the largest archaeological site in the world. It contains more Nubian Pyramids than any other site.

The ancient Nubians established a system of geometry including early versions of sun clocks. Many are located at the sites of Meroë. During the Meroitic period in Nubian history the ancient Nubians used a trigonometric methodology similar to the Egyptians.

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Population
estimate
277 million

GDP (PPP)
Total
2013 estimate
US$ 1,193 billion
Per capita
4,309

Member states

SADC has 15 member states:

# Angola
# Botswana
# Democratic Republic of the Congo – since 8 September 1997
# Lesotho
# Madagascar – membership reinstated on 30 January 2014 after an imposed suspension in 2009
# Malawi
# Mauritius – since 28 August 1995
# Mozambique
# Namibia – since 31 March 1990 (since independence)
# Seychelles – also previously been a member of SADC from 8 September 1997 until 1 July 2004 then joined again in 2008.
# South Africa – since 30 August 1994
# Swaziland
# Tanzania
# Zambia
# Zimbabwe

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The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation comprising five countries in the African Great Lakes region in eastern Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of the Republic of Kenya, is the EAC's current chairman. The organisation was originally founded in 1967, collapsed in 1977, and was officially revived on 7 July 2000.In 2008, after negotiations with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the EAC agreed to an expanded free trade area including the member states of all three organizations. The EAC is an integral part of the African Economic Community.


Population
2014 estimate

153,301,178[1] a (9th)


GDP (PPP)

2013 estimate
Total
US$ 297.791 billion[2] (51sta)

Per capita
US$ 1,942 a


GDP (nominal)
2013 estimate
Total
US$ 122.672 billion (61sta)

Per capita
US$ 800 a

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The economy of Ghana, has a diverse and rich resource base with a primary manufacturing and exportation of digital technology goods combined with automotive and ship construction and exportation, as well as exportation of diverse and rich resource hydrocarbons, industrial minerals among many others makes Ghana attain one of the highest GDP per capita in Africa.Owing to a GDP rebasement, in 2011 Ghana became the fastest growing economy in the world; differences with neighboring economies are likely to be overstated due to underfunded statistical agencies in surrounding countries.


The Ghanaian domestic economy in 2012 revolved around services, which accounts for 50% of GDP and employs 28% of the work force. Besides industrialization associated with minerals and oil, industrial development in Ghana remains basic, often associated with plastics (chairs, plastic bags, razors and pens).

Ghana embarked on a currency re-denomination exercise, from Cedi (¢) to the new currency, the Ghana Cedi (GH¢) in July 2007. The transfer rate is 1 Ghana Cedi for every 10,000 Cedis. Ghana embarked upon an aggressive media campaign to educate the public about what re-denomination entails. Value added tax is a consumption tax administered in Ghana. The tax regime which started in 1998 had a single rate but since September 2007 entered into a multiple rate regime. In 1998, the rate of tax was 10% and amended in 2000 to 12.5%. The top income tax and corporate tax rates are 25%. Other taxes included with value-added tax (VAT), are national health insurance levy, and a capital gains tax. The overall tax burden amounts to 12.1% of Ghana's total domestic income, and the budget of Ghana has fallen to the equivalent of 39.8% of GDP.

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Ghana's industrial base is relatively advanced. Import-substitution industries include electronics manufacturing; Rlg Communications is the first indigenous African company to assemble laptops, desktops, mobile phones, and West Africa's biggest Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and mobile phone manufacturing company. Automobiles and Electric cars manufacturing; Ghana began its automotive industry car manufacturing with the construction of its first self assembled automobile from Ghanaian automotive company "Suame Industrial Development Organization" (SMIDO) first constructed prototype robust sport utility vehicle (SUV), named the SMATI Turtle 1, intended for use in the rough African terrain and designed and manufactured by "Artisans of Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organization" (SMIDO) and the construction of Ghanaian urban electric cars from 2014. Textiles; As of 2012 there were four major companies in this sector. Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL), Tex Style Ghana Limited (GTP), Printex Ghana and Ghana Textile Manufacturing Company (GTMC). Crude oil and gas refining; Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and Ghana Oil Company.

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Manufacturing in Ghana

Mahindra XUV500 is manufactured and exported from Ghana along with the urban electric car the Mahindra e2o, the Mahindra Genio and the Mahindra Xylo.


Kantanka Otumfo SUV made by Apostle Kwadwo Safo of Kantanka Automobiles in Ghana

Main articles: Manufacturing in Ghana and Companies of Ghana

Manufacturing in Ghana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_Ghana


List of companies of Ghana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Ghana

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Nigeria is a middle income, mixed economy and emerging market, with expanding financial, service, communications, technology and entertainment sectors. It is ranked as the 21st largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP, and the 20th largest in terms of Purchasing Power Parity. It is the largest economy in Africa; its re-emergent, though currently underperforming, manufacturing sector is the third-largest on the continent, and produces a large proportion of goods and services for the West African subregion. Nigeria recently changed its economic analysis to account for rapidly growing contributors to its GDP, such as telecommunications, banking, and its film industry.

Previously hindered by years of mismanagement, economic reforms of the past decade have put Nigeria back on track towards achieving its full economic potential. Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) has almost tripled from $170 billion in 2000 to $451 billion in 2012, although estimates of the size of the informal sector (which is not included in official figures) put the actual numbers closer to $630 billion. Correspondingly, the GDP per capita doubled from $1400 per person in 2000 to an estimated $2,800 per person in 2012 (again, with the inclusion of the informal sector, it is estimated that GDP per capita hovers around $3,900 per person). (Population increased from 120 million in 2000 to 160 million in 2010). These figures are to be revised upwards by as much as 80% when metrics are recalculated subsequent to the rebasing of its economy in April 2014.

Although much has been made of its status as a major exporter of oil, Nigeria produces only about 2.7% of the world's supply (Saudi Arabia: 12.9%, Russia: 12.7%, USA:8.6%).[19] To put oil revenues in perspective: at an estimated export rate of 1.9 Mbbl/d (300,000 m3/d), with a projected sales price of $65 per barrel in 2011, Nigeria's anticipated revenue from petroleum is about $52.2 billion (2012 GDP: $451 billion). This accounts about 11% of official GDP figures (and drops to 8% when the informal economy is included in these calculations). Therefore, though the petroleum sector is important, it remains in fact a small part of the country's overall vibrant and diversified economy.

The largely subsistence agricultural sector has not kept up with rapid population growth, and Nigeria, once a large net exporter of food, now imports a large quantity of its food products, though there is a resurgence in manufacturing and exporting of food products. In 2006, Nigeria successfully convinced the Paris Club to let it buy back the bulk of its debts owed to the Paris Club for a cash payment of roughly $12 billion (USD).

According to a Citigroup report published in February 2011, Nigeria will get the highest average GDP growth in the world between 2010 and 2050. Nigeria is one of two countries from Africa among 11 Global Growth Generators countries.

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No longer the kiss of death
Falling commodity prices will hurt Africa's economy less than previously thought



IN 2014 commodity prices tumbled. Many economists feared the worst for Africa. For decades the continent has been worryingly dependent on commodities to power economic growth. When prices crashed, economies would go into a tailspin. This time around, though, things seem different. The continent is holding up well.

The map above looks at how forecasts from the International Monetary Fund for African growth in 2015-16 have changed in the past year. Compared to what it was predicting in April 2014, the IMF now expects slower economic growth in most African economies. For instance, the IMF now expects Nigeria to grow by 10% over the next two years, whereas in April 2014 it had predicted growth of 14%. Thus growth expectations have fallen by 4 percentage points, as the map's colouring shows.

Some countries, especially those that are still very dependent on commodities, have seen bigger downgrades. But overall the situation is positive. Only two countries, Sierra Leone (a commodity-dependent economy which has also been hit by Ebola) and Equatorial Guinea (an oil-soaked kleptocracy), will see their economies contract over the next two years. Other African economies, meanwhile, have been upgraded. Lower oil prices are a boon for Kenya, which is a big importer of the fuel. And the Kenyan government is also embarking on big fuel-hungry rail and energy projects.

What explains Africa’s solid performance? We discussed this in detail at the beginning of this year, but a few things stick out. Manufacturing output in the continent is expanding as quickly as the rest of the economy. Growth is even faster in services, which expanded at an average rate of 2.6% per person across Africa between 1996 and 2011. Tourism, in particular, has boomed: the number of foreign visitors doubled and receipts tripled between 2000 and 2012. All this means that even if income from commodity production slips, other parts of the economy can take up the slack.

Better fiscal policy also plays a role. Until a few years ago, nearly all African economies spent freely when their economies were hot, only to rein in spending when things cooled down. That is the opposite of what most economists would advise a finance minister to do. But in recent years, according to a report from the World Bank published in January, fiscal policies in many African countries have become more sensible. These days a fair number of African economies save money during the good times, in order to spend it in the bad ones.

Even so, the casual observer should not be fooled. Africa is still too dependent on commodities. And its politicians need to do more to reduce their countries' reliance on the sector for economic growth. But things are a lot better than they used to be.

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By
silentobsserver117
I'm never surprised by a curious phenomenon about Africa. Good news brings out haters. It's greeted with scorn and doubt. And bad news is brings out lovers. It's greeted with "they are helpless and need us to survive".
It's all too predictable. Many outside the continent maintain a warped mentality about their own capability and that of individuals in African countries. I'm not surprised by African resiliency, upbeat disposition and can do attitude. Those who are surprised should put away their personal superiority complex, put away their fear, accept it and respect it.

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